No Frills - Jauh berjalan kaki wei !!!

Semasa kami bercuti di London pertengahan tahun 2010, kami menempah "No-frills" RyanAir untuk ke Venice dan EasyJet untuk ke Geneva, daripada London (dari Stansted dan Luton airports).

Kami menempah tiket secara online dari Kuala Lumpur lagi. Kami sempat print "Boarding Pass" RyanAir semasa kami masih berada di Malaysia kerana "Boarding Pass" Ryan Air boleh dicetak, kalau tidak silap, seawal 2 minggu sebelum tarikh penerbangan.

Yang ini pula, "Travel Plan" EasyJet. "Boarding Pass"nya kami cetak setelah kami berada di UK.

TIPS : Sekiranya anda terbang dengan RyanAir ataupun EasyJet dari Stansted ataupun Luton, pada waktu pertengahan tahun - pastikan anda tiba awal untuk daftar masuk. Sekurang-kurangnya 3 (?) jam lebih awal dari waktu penerbangan.

Pengalaman kami di Stansted Airport

Semasa ke Venice dari Stansted Airport, dengan RyanAir, kami sememangnya tiba awal di airport. Lagipun kami perlu menghantar balik kereta sewa. Eloknya pick-up/drop-off kereta sewa di airport ni adalah kerana waktu operasinya lebih fleksible. Pukul 5:30 pagi kami telahpun berada di Stansted Airport kerana waktu itu Hertz Car Rental telah mula dibuka (untuk drop-off sahaja, kerana kaunter hanya dibuka pada jam 8 pagi?)

Selepas "drop-off" kereta, kami terus berjalan kaki ke kaunter daftar masuk RyanAir. Nasib baik Hertz car rental pun kat airport terminal juga! 

Mak datuk !!! Ramainya orang beratur!! (kaunter masih belum dibuka ni!) Oleh kerana kami bukan pemegang paspot UK ataupun EU, kami pun terpaksa beratur sama untuk "clearance" di kaunter (passport verification) walaupun kami telah ada boarding passes. Dekat sejam baru clear kat kaunter. Kemudian berjalan kaki ke tempat "custom clearance" pula. Beratur lagi!. Lepas tu, rasa begitu jauh berjalan kaki untuk ke "departure gate". Boleh dikatakan kami berlari anak untuk tiba ke departure gate. Sesampainya di sana (jauh berjalan kaki wei!!), orang sudah beratur menaiki pesawat! Kami tiba "ngam-ngam" untuk tidak terlepas kapalterbang. (Sila ambil perhatian bahawa RyanAir/EasyJet memang warning awal-awal lagi untuk tepat pada masanya, kalau tidak, memang kena tinggal!).

So, 3 jam tu mungkin hanya cukup-cukup pada musim orang ramai begitu. Itu nasib baik yang boleh "berlari" untuk ke departure gate. So.. take note!

Pengalaman kami di Luton Airport

Belajar dari pengalam di Stansted Airport, kami merancang untuk tiba lebih awal di Luton. Lagipun tempat drop-off kereta sewa, bukan di Airport Terminal proper, kena naik bas (disediakan percuma mengikut jadual) dari drop-off location ke Terminal Airport. Dalam nak lekas ke Terminal, kami tertinggal holder GPS dalam kereta! Ceh!

Sampai di kaunter daftar masuk EasyJet, mak datuk nenek moyang!!! Orang lagi ramai!!!! Dalam fikiran, memang sudah tak sempat lagi ni nak "clear" in time untuk naik pesawat. Kami terus pergi jumpa petugas EasyJet (customer services) untuk mengadu hal.

Waduh! Leganya kami apabila petugas tu kata, "You have Malaysian Passport. Go straight to custom clearance point". Sampai juga kami ke Geneva hari tu! (Beratur di custom check point dan jalan kaki ke departure gate pun ambil masa yang lama juga wei! Sampai ke gate terus naik pesawat)

Secara overall, pengalaman dengan "no frills" RyanAir dan EasyJet ini okay jugalah, especially, straight-forward masa booking tiket kat on line tu. Tak pening kepala, konar sana, konar sini seperti diajak main hide and seek pula. Contohnya, RyanAir buat promosi harga. Harga itulah yang kita bayar tanpa apa-apa lagi charge itu dan ini samada hidden ataupun tak hidden.

Great Ocean Road - Australia

If you go to Melbourne for holiday, include "Great Ocean Road-Port Campbell" in the itinerary (assuming you and your party love natural beauties that mother earth provides).

Drive early, 9am or earlier from Melbourne airport heading to Port Campbell via the Great Ocean Road. We took Airport Tullamarine-Torquay-Lorne-Apollo Bay route to reach Port Campbell just before 6pm. That was about over 300km drive, mostly along coastal and park roads with some winding roads. So you cannot expect an average highway speed (90km/h) to reach Port Campbell.

Two nights at Port Campbell is more than enough. In fact one night sleep at Port Campbell on arrival day should suffice since you can sort of "rush" to cover all the main attraction spots in Port Campbell National Park the next day and sleep somewhere else according to your planned journey. But this is not advisable especially when you are the only driver.

Don't forget that you may not have enough sleep the night before since they serves you midnight hours meal, and again very early hour morning snack in the flight. Melbourne time (GMT+10) is ahead 2hrs from KL time (GMT+8), therefore "lose another 2hrs of sleep", and you need to be energetic to drive 300km plus journey for another 7/8 hours or so. Do mind also the amount of daylight you have, depending on which season your holiday falls in.

The journey offers you scenic coastal route from Melbourne to Port Campbell, i.e. the Great Ocean Road, with many attraction spots along the way for you to stop and explore for a while. Don't forget that you need to reach Port Campbell before it is late in the evening, in case you have already booked your accommodation.

Within Port Campbell National Park, do visit London Bridge, The Grotto, Bay of Martyrs, Bay of Islands, Loch Ard Gorge and 12 Apostles. Read more about the natural attractions HERE. Our motel receptionist told us that The Grotto is not to be missed.

Here are some pics from our lens.

To Port Cambell

Stop point, or "Landmark" of the Great Ocean Road. There is a "Great Ocean Road Gate", wooden overhead "gate" spanning across the road nearby.

Waterfall, in another national park, inner route along the way. We spotted quite a large wild kangaroo beside the road, but did not manage to stop and take a pic of it. They told us that we should see some koalas up on the trees along the road.

One of the view taken from a lookout point at the side of a winding coastal road.




At Port Campbell

(View from hilltop overlooking the Southern Ocean Motor Inn area)

Bay Of Islands

The Grotto

Loch Ard Gorge

London Bridge

 12 Apostles / The Razor

 

 

 

 

Port Campbell to St. Kilda, Melbourne

A lakeside park in Colacs. Aussies are gathering to celebrate Anzac Day.

Lake Colacs

Driving through Melbourne from Geelong, heading toward St. Kilda.

Somewhere near our Easystay Apartment at St. Kilda beach.

Melbourne City

(Federation Square)

(One of the grafitti street)

(one of the graffiti close-up)

(visual trick at Melbourne Museum)

(Melbourne Museum, where IMAX is also located)

(Victoria Market)

Some beautiful currency notes around the world

Parmukalle

We went to Parmukalle, Turkey last year. It is one of the 10 unique places around the world:-

Pamukkale means cotton castle, and has also been called the white castle because of the vast whiteness caused by the high concentration of calcite in the water. Travertine sedimentary deposits have created the white terraces, petrified waterfalls and mineral forests that make up the landscape. The 17 hot springs are heated by an underground volcano. The beautiful area of Pamukkale, Turkey, has been used as a healing spa for thousands of years. The healing properties of the area drew people from all over, and the Romans built the ancient city of Hieropolis there. To help preserve the area, hotels and access roads were taken down and man-made pools were created to help in keeping the natural beauty of Pamukkale.

Read about the nine other unique places around the world by LISTVERSE (click here)

Here are some of the photos we took at Parmukalle:-

 

 

 

 

 

Want to see more? Click HERE (google images)